Friday, 24 February 2017

Jezza's Poll Ratings

Jeremy Corbyn is blaming the media for the Labour Party's poor showing in opinion polls according to reports from a meeting of Labour MPs.

What Jezza fails to point out, of course is that this is the very same media faced by other Labour leaders in the recent past.So the truth is that Labour's poll ratings have fallen though the floor under Corbyn's watch and the 'leader' is less popular than the party itself, as yesterday's by-elections in Copeland and Stoke have demonstrated.Read what Kevin Schofield has to say via the link below to the Politics Home web site.

Mr Corbyn was confronted about the grim figures at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party tonight.

Former Shadow Chancellor Chris Leslie, who asked if the leader "had any comprehension" of what they meant for Labour's election chances.

Mr Corbyn replied: "Of course I understand what's going on and the problems we have had in the media.

"We need to get a strong, positive message across and we do that better on social media."

Speaking after the hour-long meeting, a source close to the Labour leader said the party was still suffering the after-effects of last year's failed leadership coup.

"There's concern in the Labour party at the opinion polls and has been for several months, said the source. "That's been the case since the leadership challenge last summer, when Labour was - in the last round of local elections in May - ahead of the Tories by one point.

"After the leadership challenge and the dissension in the Labour party, that fell back and obviously since the change of Tory leadership, the Tories have been in a stronger position. But we're confident that won't continue, that Labour's position will improve in the polls and the Tories will fall back.

"Labour dropped back as a result of the internal dissension in the party and the leadership contest, and the Tories picked up at the time Theresa May became Prime Minister and she's had something of a honeymoon. I don't think that's going to last.

"As soon as the Government's position goes to Brussels, it will be confronted by the reality of 27 countries briefing against it, the internal dissension in the Tory Party will be exacerbated. For all those reasons, the kind of gap you're looking at at the moment would close."

He also said "the leadership question was settled" and dismissed suggestions that Mr Corbyn had discussed a departure date with his close allies.

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn also told the PLP meeting that this week's by-elections in Stoke and Copeland are "on a knife-edge" and called on MPs to do all they could to support both campaigns.

Real Fight Starts Here (21/02/17)

The latest ICM and YouGov polls make grim reading for the Labour Party yet there still no sign of the leadership facing up to the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is widely regarded as a complete dud.

About Me

Mark is an independent consultant with a wide range of clients in the public, private and 'not for profit' sectors - both in the UK and Europe.
In a previous life, Mark spent 20 years as a senior trade union official - latterly as Unison's Head of Local Government and Chief Negotiator in Scotland. Contact Mark by e-mail at: markirvine@compuserve.com